Chinese Eastern Railway

Chinese Eastern Railway
Traditional Chinese中國東省鐵路
Simplified Chinese中国东省铁路
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinZhōngguó Dōngshěng tiělù
Wade–GilesChung1-kup2 Tung1-sheng3 t'ieh3-lu4
The routing of the main line of the Chinese Eastern Railway (Manzhouli to Harbin to Suifenhe), here labelled the Trans-Manchurian Railway, and its southern branch (Harbin to Dalian). After 1905, most of the southern branch (from Changchun to Dalian) became the Japan-run South Manchuria Railway

The Chinese Eastern Railway or CER (Chinese: 中國東省鐵路, Russian: Китайско-Восточная железная дорога, or КВЖД, Kitaysko-Vostochnaya Zheleznaya Doroga or KVZhD), is the historical name for a railway system in Northeast China (also known as Manchuria).

The Russian Empire constructed the line from 1897 to 1902 during the Great Game period. The Railway was a concession to Russia, and later the Soviet Union, granted by the Qing dynasty government of Imperial China. The system linked Chita with Vladivostok in the Russian Far East and with Port Arthur, then an Imperial Russian leased ice-free port. The T-shaped line consisted of three branches:

which intersected in Harbin. Saint Petersburg administered the railway and the concession, known as the Chinese Eastern Railway Zone, from the city of Harbin, which grew into a major rail-hub.[1]

The southern branch of the CER, known as the Japanese South Manchuria Railway from 1906, became a locus and partial casus belli for the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, the 1929 Sino-Soviet Conflict, and the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945. The Soviet Union sold the railway to the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in 1935;[2][3] later in 1945 the Soviets regained co-ownership of the railway by treaty.[3] The Soviet Union returned the Chinese Eastern Railway to the People's Republic of China in 1952.[4]

  1. ^ Liang Chia-pin, “History of the Chinese Eastern Railway: A Chinese Version.” Pacific Affairs 3#2 (1930), pp. 188–211, online
  2. ^ Kantorovich, A. J. (1935). "The Sale of the Chinese Eastern Railway". Pacific Affairs. 8 (4): 397–408. doi:10.2307/2751239. ISSN 0030-851X. JSTOR 2751239.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Zhang, Shengfa (2010). "The Main Causes for the Return of the Changchun Railway to China". In Bernstein, Thomas P.; Hua-Yu, Li (eds.). China Learns from the Soviet Union, 1949 – Present. Vol. 1 (1st ed.). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. p. 61.

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